Here’s an easy New Year’s wish for the governor and legislators: Get stuff done without fighting.

Bernard Schoenburg

Here’s an easy New Year’s wish for the governor and legislators: Get stuff done without fighting.

Unfortunately, that could be harder to accomplish than standard resolutions like “I’m going to take off 10 pounds,” or “I’m going to work out five days a week,” or “I’m going to turn off reality shows and read some good books.”

One can only hope there will never be a year as dysfunctional in state government as 2007. It’s amazing that, with total Democratic control of constitutional offices and the General Assembly, there’s been such gridlock.

Of course, in the 30 years I’ve been watching state government, there has never been a governor as unpredictably irrational (or so it seems to many) as Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH. And the fact that few people trust his word and the feds have been busy indicting his friends hasn’t helped.

The coming of the new calendar year will mean regular legislation can pass by simple majority instead of extraordinary majority, making it technically easier to move an agenda. But big differences remain among Blagojevich, Senate Democrats and House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN on the form a gambling-expansion bill should take. As a result, that plan and a bailout for Chicago-area transit systems still are not slam dunks. And Republican votes will still be needed in the House to authorize new bonds for a statewide construction program.

So, as you drink a glass of bubbly to welcome 2008, think — ever so briefly — about those good folks entrusted to spend your tax dollars wisely. Maybe, together, they’ll act in the new year less like they’ve had too much of the bubbly stuff themselves.

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Most voters won’t notice it, but among the effects of some recent changes in election law is that there probably will be fewer people signing up to be write-in candidates.

The State Board of Elections and others in the election field, including associations of election commissions and county clerks, sought some of the changes. Others followed court decisions.

The new provisions were included in legislation, SB662, passed nearly unanimously during the extended legislative session this year and signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Nov. 9.

According to CRIS CRAY, legislative liaison for the State Board of Elections, county clerks wanted a change that says write-in candidates must file in each county 61 days before a primary in order for votes for them to be counted. Past law allowed write-in candidates to file until the Tuesday before the primary.

The only exception under the new law is in cases where candidates filed for office but were removed via objections to their nominating petitions. They then can file as write-ins up to seven days before an election.

In some larger counties, ballots are running so long they have gone to two pages, Cray said. With the new law, lines for write-in votes won’t be needed in some races.

That change will help Sangamon County, said STACEY KERN, director of the election office within County Clerk JOE AIELLO’s office. Even though most voters in the county cast ballots on computerized voting machines, paper ballots are still sent to absentee voters, she said.

Aiello issued a news release outlining some of the changes, including a provision that gives high school juniors a right already afforded high school seniors — to serve as election judges even though they may not be of voting age. School approval, good grades and training are all required.

Also, in the past, if a voter signed a nominating petition for a candidate of a specific party, that voter could vote only in that party’s primary election. That provision has been eliminated.

“These changes were designed to make candidate eligibility more uniform statewide while encouraging greater participation in our electoral system for those who wish to vote or serve as an election judge,” Aiello said. “In Sangamon County, we see these changes as having a positive impact at all levels of the process.”

Cray notes that the process Democrats used a couple of years ago to find a ballot replacement for then-U.S. Rep. LANE EVANS, D-Rock Island, led to another change. Back then, all precinct committeemen in the 17th Congressional District — amounting to hundreds of people — were voted on the replacement when Evans pulled out of the election following the primary.

Under the new law, weighted votes will be cast for such replacements only by the party county chairmen. It appears that new provision will be used by Democratic county chairmen in the 18th Congressional District, who will be able to fill a ballot vacancy after the Feb. 5 primary because the only candidate who filed, DICK VERSACE, dropped out of the contest.

Cray said another provision could help local counties if more money is provided. The new law says the state should reimburse counties $45 for each election judge, up from the current $25. But she said the state budget would have to increase from $1.45 million annually to $2.61 million annually to pay for the change, and no such appropriation is in the current state budget. Cray said the state elections board is planning to seek a supplemental appropriation so the higher amount can be paid to counties.

A trained election judge in Sangamon County is paid $150. Only for last-minute fill-ins are judges without that training allowed to work, Kern said. They are paid $100.

The judges, one from each party, who drive ballots to the Sangamon County Complex also get small stipends of $5 to $15, depending on if they are the driver or passenger and if their precinct is near or far from the county building.

The 61-day write-in rule applies to the Feb. 5 primary. In Sangamon County, only four people filed to be write-ins by that deadline.

They are Democrat JOHN DEVINE, a student at the University of Illinois at Springfield who wants to run against state Sen. LARRY BOMKE, R-Springfield, in November; DON GRAY, a former state Republican Party employee seeking nomination for Sangamon County recorder, where only Democrat JOSH LANGFELDER has filed; and perennial candidate MICHEAL (he wants it spelled that way this time) GRAGG, who wants to be the Democratic candidate for circuit clerk, where incumbent Republican TONY LIBRI is running for re-election.

To make the November ballot, Devine needs 1,000 write-in votes, Gray would need 324, and Gragg would need 261 (Gragg got exactly two write-in votes for Ward 3 alderman last spring).

The numbers match the signatures that would have been required on nominating petitions.

A write-in for Democratic precinct committeeman in Woodside 2, RONALD SHEPHERD, needs 10 write-in votes to take that office, which is elected at the primary.

SUBHEAD

Congratulations to Sherman Village President TREVOR CLATFELTER on his recent wedding to the former MICHELLE PUTNAM.

Clatfelter, 32, and Putnam, 26, were married at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Peoria, where Michelle’s parents live.

Clatfelter is in his first year leading city government in Sherman. His full-time job is that of deputy director of the legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

His wife is commuting to St. Louis University’s law school and plans to go into health law. The two met about three years ago when Clatfelter, who happens to be a Democrat, was giving an orientation talk to new staffers for Senate Republicans about the commission’s duties.

After the Aug. 4 wedding, the couple honeymooned on the Greek island of Crete.

Clatfelter said life remains busy. Among things he’s working on, with state Rep. RICH BRAUER, R-Petersburg, and Williamsville Village President BILL McCARTY, is preliminary work with AmerenCILCO for possible use of old Interurban rail right-of-way for a bike path between the two communities.

Subhead

RICH WILLIAMSON, a lawyer, former Illinois GOP chairman and the 1992 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Illinois, has been named by President GEORGE BUSH to be special envoy to Sudan.

Williamson replaces ANDREW NATSIOS. Reuters reported that Natsios’ stated reason for resigning was to spend more time teaching at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but that several U.S. officials said Natsios was frustrated at the slow pace of getting a 26,000-strong African Union-United Nations force into Darfur.

Natsios had overseen the Bush administration’s push to end genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, the Associated Press reported. He also worked to maintain a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war between north and south Sudan.

A White House news release said Williamson “brings a wealth of experience in the public and private sectors to the role of Special Envoy.”

Williamson worked in the Reagan White House. Among his diplomatic posts since was ambassador for special political affairs to the United Nations, a job for which he left the chairmanship of the state Republican Party in 2001.

He has written seven books and more than 150 articles on international relations, including a 2006 book, “American Primacy and Multilateral Cooperation,” published by a Chicago think tank he helped start, the Prairie Institute for Economic Growth and Freedom.

Bernard Schoenburg is political columnist for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at (217) 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.

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